This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. Don’t freak out.

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Do you live in one of the most dangerous states in America?

We all watch the news with horror when we hear about a crime that happens not that far away from us. While a major crime just blocks or towns away from your house would make anyone uneasy, in the long run, most likely, where you live is relatively safe.

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and dug into the FBI crime data in order to identify the most dangerous states in the U.S.

If you’re in one of the places we’re about to highlight, odds are you know things aren’t a place that you can let your guard down too often.

The purpose of this study is to use facts to determine which of our great American states have the highest instances of crime. While unbiased, this research does take into account factors that almost all Americans would agree are undesirable. Therefore, while you may have strong opinions either way, you can’t argue against the methodology.

Turns out New Mexico is the most dangerous state you can live in this country. The safest? You might not be too surprised that New Hampshire takes the cake.

How do you decide if a place is dangerous or not?

In order to rank the dangerous American states, we had to determine what makes a place dangerous. It isn’t a stretch to assume that states where people are being killed and beaten up on a weekly basis are a pretty bad place to be.

We then ranked each state from 1 to 50 for the two criteria with a #1 ranking being the dangerous for the particular criteria.

Next, we averaged the two rankings into one “Danger Index”.

Finally, we ranked every state on the “Danger Index” with the lowest index being the most dangerous in America for 2018, New Mexico.

Here’s a visualization of the criteria:

Note: We get the crime numbers from the FBI, which gets its crime numbers from the states themselves. This list is based on data. It’s also not a testament to the effectiveness of local law enforcement.

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1. New Mexico

Believe it or not, but little New Mexico, one of the least densely populated places in the country, has the highest crime rate in the nation. Why? The number of violent crimes per person is the 2nd highest and the number of property crimes is the highest you’ll find in America by a long shot.

2. Alaska

Alaska surged up the rankings this year — one of the biggest movers and shakers of 2018.

So here’s the deal with Alaska. Yes, it’s the most violent place you can live in the nation. Sure, there are hardly any places in Alaska where people actually live, but in the large clusters of cities that do exist, the odds are higher here than anywhere else that a rape, assault or murder will occur.

4. Arkansas

Arkansas is another poor state in the south with a far-higher than average number of murders, rapes, assaults and robberies per capita. If you live in the Natural State, don’t leave your car doors unlocked; there were more than 7,100 vehicles stolen in the state of Arkansas in 2016.

5. South Carolina

South Carolina is notoriously bad for property crimes, especially in places like Myrtle Beach, which is a major tourist draw.

Yes, we’re aware that many of the crimes committed in Myrtle Beach are from visitors, and related to the huge summer influx, but the fact remains: Lots and lots of property crimes happen within South Carolina’s borders every year.

8. Arizona

The only west coast state to make the list, Arizona is notoriously a pretty dangerous place, especially for robberies. For example, there were over 18,000 cars stolen here in 2016, and more than 37,000 home robberies.

8 thoughts on “These Are The 10 Most Dangerous States In America For 2018”

They have Louisiana and South Carolina both has being 6th in violent crime and 4th in property crime. Then they rank Louisiana 3rd and South Carolina as 4th. Can the rest of this be trusted to make as much sense? Also, this is a picture of how it was in our country 2 years ago. I’m certain that things are not the same today. But just think, while we were living in the most dangerous state in America two years ago, we were blissfully ignorant. And everyone reading this survived the danger, so we have proven that we are all badasses. Take a bow, my fellow New Mexicans.

Well, my home state, Virginia, is a very safe place to be. We learned at an early age to “treat other’s as we would like to be treated” It’s called the “Golden Rule” for those that have never heard such a thing.
Now living in Michigan where the first thing I learned was to change the subject when someone asks, “are you looking at me”?

New Mexico like many border states deals with the criminal elements that illegally cross over the border but don’t want to get too far in case they need a quick escape (and don’t get all worked up I’m pro-immigration). But facts are facts and illegal residents are arrested here for violent crimes all the time. New Mexico also suffers from decades of poor legislation and governing. Too many years of law making by the ‘good ol’ boys’ club as far back as the 40’s and to some current laws. We have very few laws with ‘teeth’ or that give the legal system here and real strength or authority however there are TONS of loopholes. There are also an abundance of people and groups that will protect the rights of criminals over those of their victims for one reason or another. Many people here LOVE to be political/ethically outraged for no other reason then just to outraged. Education here is less than stellar which doesn’t help matters, there are very few good programs for kids & teens to participate in, good paying jobs are few and hard to find and the list goes on with local and state program problems and management. I have lived here all my life and things have only gotten worse and unless there are some drastic changes it will only worse.

Figures don’t lie, but Liars figure. If you were to analyze How figures are obtained and What constitutes the basis of the statistics, you can come-up with Results that are at complete variance with what is being purported. How much crime goes Unreported in larger cities simply because the Victim says “Why bother”. And yet, this very same Tendency is used as a Reason to say that Crimes are rampant in big cities; but are simply Not Reported “Only 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police. That means about 2 out of 3 go unreported”. In Rural and Small Towns; everybody knows everybody and the local sheriff and police officers are often on a first name basis with the locals, and things get reported that would never see the light of day otherwise. Murder is Harder to Hide, and that is where Baltimore, Chicago and DC garner the spotlight. And that Link between Crime/Poverty is a crock; foisted upon us by a bunch of do-gooders looking for an excuse for Inexcusable Behavior.

My state was not on the top ten but to be honest I have read a couple of your articles and it’s all just talking crap about were people live and it’s mean I’ve read the most ghetto places in Georgia (my home state) and it’s just being rude to people that live there and you never know their personal business you never know they could struggle financially and that town is the only places they can afford to live in and most of the places listed on that list it all wrong some of the places on that list is the most beautiful in the state you need to stick your so called “science “ we’re the sun doesn’t shine